Auburn Makes Up Ground On JUCO WR

Stephen Atkinson

05/28/2011

Hutchinson Community College wide receiver Cordarelle Patterson discusses his visit to Auburn for Big Cat Weekend and where the Tigers stand.

Hutchinson, Kan.—One of the top junior college players in the country, receiver Cordarrelle Patterson of Hutchinson Community College, has moved Auburn into one of his front-runners following his visit for Big Cat Weekend.

"It was good," Patterson said. "I didn't expect it to be all this good. I've been on visits to Georgia, Tennessee and Oklahoma State and they were good, but what they had at Auburn was better. It stood out to me. It was better.

"(It was) everything," he added. "All of the people I was around. It was like one big family. It was like some place that I like, need to be or something. Everything stood out. Every place we went there was something good about it. I didn't find anything bad about it.

"At first, Auburn wasn't on my top list," Patterson continued. "When I came here they jumped on my top so quick. I didn't expect it to be like that so fast."

Asked to clarify where Auburn stood in line for his signature, Patterson wasn't ready to jump the gun and put the Tigers at No. 1 quite yet.

"I don't want to say right now," he explained. "I know Georgia, Tennessee and Auburn are in there, and a couple of other schools. I could put them in my top three or top five."

However, asked what he was looking for in a school was exactly what he felt on his visit to Auburn over the weekend. "Just a place that I'm going to feel comfortable at and (the coaches) will talk to me, and not just tell me what I want to hear. I want to feel like I'm at home."

Patterson is planning on making a return trip to Auburn this summer on an official visit with Hutchinson assistant coach Eric Munoz.

Originally from Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, S.C., Patterson has offers from just about any college of his choosing coming out of junior college. He will likely have three years to play two as far as college eligibility after catching 52 passes for more than 900 yards and nine touchdowns in 2010 and his sophomore season starting in September.

Patterson, expected to be a January enrollee, was going to make a late decision but is trying to move up his timetable a bit.

"I was going to wait until near the end of the season," he noted, "but I'm going to try to make it earlier than that so I can get all of the pressure off."

Auburn commitment Zeke Pike, a five-star quarterback, was one of a few visitors over the weekend trying to help out Patterson's decision.

"He was a good dude," Patterson said of Pike. "He was down to earth and he was telling me who he was. I didn't know about him until we got to Auburn. As we got to Auburn and talked I realized he was a good dude. He was telling me, ‘Come here. We're going to get better,' and all of this stuff. Stuff I wanted to hear."

At 6-4, a shade over 200 pounds and being clocked at a 4.29, according to Patterson, Auburn's lack of receiver depth could play into the Tigers' favor.

"I'm a receiver," he said. "I'm trying to get in there and play. I don't want to sit on the sideline or none of that. To me it helps me to make the school stand out even more. If they need me and they're an SEC school, it makes them jump on my list pretty quick. They showed me some of the receivers leaving and all of that."